Categories
Articles on Servant Leadership Uncategorized

Servant Leadership : Oxymoron or Reality?

Demonstrating Conceptual Skills

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for acceptance of Servant Leadership in corporate circles is the belief that Servant Leadership is an oxymoron. Critics of Servant Leadership often ask the question “How can one be a servant and a leader at the same time?”. The original definition given by Robert Greenleaf that “A Servant Leader is a servant first…” did not make it any easier for the concept to get acceptance in wider circles. This apparent contradiction in the term is what made Servant Leadership acquire an esoteric nature for quite a long time after it was propounded by Robert Greenleaf in 1970.

Several Leadership gurus have tried to break that oxymoron nature of Servant Leadership recently. Notable among them are the works of Ken Blanchard.  Ken dives into the two leadership roles of Vision and Implementation to explain how Servant Leadership fulfills both the roles with a difference.

In this blog, let us look at the first leadership role, viz; visioning.

In a previous blog I had described the DEEP BHC Behaviours. You will notice that the first behaviour that we have listed there is Demonstrating Conceptual Skills. This is the behaviour that helps a Servant Leader to set a vision for self and the team and/or organisation. This essentially requires two skills viz; Conceptualisation and  Foresight.

Conceptualisation is the skill to dream Big Dreams. Servant-leaders seek to nurture their abilities to “dream great dreams.” But what does this actually mean? The ability to look at a problem (or an organization) from a conceptualizing perspective means that one must think beyond day-to-day realities. While we must focus on day to day realities, we should be able to look beyond them and see beyond what is there today. As children we do this intrinsically. As we grow up, we tend to lose this ability to dream big. History shows that  leaders who dreamt big made a difference. Martin Luther King had a dream and that changed the US society. Mahatma Gandhi had a dream that made India achieve independence through non-violence. Nelson Mandela had a dream that changed Africa. Walt Disney had a dream that made Disney Land a preferred place for everyone. Herb Kelleher dreamt of an airline that will give its customers more for less . Let me quote Herb “One of the things that people, I think, didn’t understand is that we started out saying we’re going to give you more for less, not less for less. We’re going to give you new airplanes, not old airplanes. We’re going to give you the best on-time performance. We’re going to give you the people who are most hospitable.”. This was a crazy dream way back in 1971, in one of the most competitive and difficult industries to be in.

Chasing dreams at any cost, without boundaries can be dangerous. Servant-leaders must seek a delicate balance between conceptualization and day-to-day focus. That is where the second skill of Foresight comes on. Foresight is the ability to learn from our past experiences, our current realities and the possible consequences of our actions in future. This is what defines the boundaries of what an organisation will do to go after the big dream that they have/had. Several organisations with big dreams flounder and fall through the crack, because they chase their dreams, not paying attention to boundaries. The cases of Enron, or Exxon, or Satyam or Kingfisher Airlines are classic examples of chasing big dreams without foresight. Successful organisations use their foresight to channel the process of chasing the dreams within certain boundaries. Walt Disney did it with their set of values. So did Southwest Airlines. The story of Tata as a group is an interesting study of this aspect too. Let me quote Ratan Tata “Business, as I have seen it, places one great demand on you: it needs you to self-impose a framework of ethics, values, fairness and objectivity on yourself at all times.” Integrity is the top value at Tata Group and that makes them one of the most respected business houses of all times.

So this combination of conceptualization and foresight is what results in the behaviour of Servant Leaders Demonstrating Conceptual Skills. This  bursts the oxymoron nature of Servant Leadership. Servant Leaders dream big and have the foresight to avoid the pitfalls of chasing that dream without boundaries. Servant Leaders take on the responsibility of Setting the vision, mission, values and goals for the organisation, and the employees respond to such a vision.

Come Dream Big and join the Servant Leadership Movement. Develop the behaviour of Demonstrating Conceptual Skills

______________________________________________________

This Article is written by Dr. Madana Kumar, PhD, UST’s own Servant Leadership Evangelist. You can contact him here, or connect with him here.

Categories
Articles on Servant Leadership Uncategorized

Measuring Servant Leadership through the DEEP BHC Behaviours

Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviours

All of us have heard the cliché “ What can be measured can be improved”. One of the several myths associated with Servant Leadership was that it is a nebulous concept which cannot be quantified and/ or measured. This myth was strengthened by the views of the early proponents of Servant Leadership who were not in favour of “measuring” Servant leadership attributes. The focus was on experiential understanding of the concept. Don Frick who wrote about Robert Greenleaf, was probably referring to the father of the term himself when he said that it was believed that if servant leadership was reduced to a collection of admirable qualities and learned skills that were displayed in organisational settings, it was all too easy to forget that servant leadership was, first about deep identity.  Another apprehension was that we may feel guilty and frustrated for not measuring up to this set of leadership ideals and that we may even project these ideals onto others; expecting them to do what we could not attain ourselves. Due to this, most of the early writings on Servant leadership have been based on anecdotal observations, personal testimonies and reflections.

However, a body of researchers argued against this view and attempted measuring Servant leadership attributes. In the early 2000’s many researchers came up with scales that measure Servant Leadership behaviours.

Picking up on this research, and banking on a scale that was developed and validated by Dr. Robert C Liden, I developed a scale called the Menorah Servant Leadership Assessment (MSLA) , as part of my doctoral studies. Making it part of the doctoral studies ensured that the scale went through rigorous validations tests and can relied upon.

So, the good news is that Servant Leadership behaviour can be measured. The MSLA measures Servant Leadership against seven distinct behaviours we call as the DEEP BHC behaviours. Let us look at them briefly

MSLA measures these seven behaviours as a 360 degree assessment. It gives an opportunity for the leader to compare own perception with what others actually see. It also gives an idea of how the  leader stands with respect to a global population and/or his/her organisation.

MSLA is a great tool for self-awareness for all leaders.

You can get more details about the MSLA here.

Come, take the MSLA assessment and be a great Servant Leader. Your Servant Leadership journey starts with a 360 degree assessment.

___________________________________________________

This Article is written by Dr. Madana Kumar, PhD, who is the Servant Leadership Evangelist at UST. You can contact him here . You can connect with him here

Categories
Articles on Servant Leadership Uncategorized

Social Distancing is NOT Emotional Distancing Emotional Healing is the need of the Day.

Social Distancing is the norm of the day. Ever since the declaration of COVID 19 as a pandemic, social distancing became a requirement and even a law at certain places. Most of us know that the actual meaning of the so-called social distancing is physical distancing. Physical distancing is a requirement to safeguard ourselves, our loved ones and others from getting infected with this virus on the prowl.

During the early stages of the pandemic, the scare was so high that social distancing, many times morphed into social isolation. There are cases of neighbors “spying and reporting” on suspicious visitors to some homes. People in self-quarantine were looked upon with a lot of suspicion and fear. And it became actually a stigma for those who tested positive (and their families).  Pictures of the so called “migrant workers” walking thousands of Kilometers to reach back to their homes became a talking point in global media. Stories of patients being refused treatment in hospitals started flooding the media. Even dead bodies were not given the respect due to them. An unrelated incident in the US triggered strong racial tensions in the United States of America. I am sure I am not alone in having wondered sometimes, “Where is Humanity headed?”

But then there were several silver linings among the ominous clouds. Several COVID heroes emerged. Thousands of people and organisations came up to augment the efforts of the government agencies in managing the “migrant worker’s” sufferings. The #BLM movement touched the conscience of Millions. This was a social movement across the globe.

These two sides of the coin proved one thing to me. There are some who mistook Social Distancing to be Emotional Distancing, and there are others who took Social Distancing to be a time to actually practice the Servant Leadership behaviour of “Emotional Healing”.

I have chosen to write about Emotional Healing, because I believe it is the need of the hour for the world, and business in particular. Emotional Healing is one of the DEEP BHC Behaviours that mark out a Servant Leader from Traditional Leaders. This is the behaviour that makes Servant Leaders heal themselves and their relationship with others. My earlier blog on Four Habits dwelt on some attributes that help develop the Emotional Healing Behaviour.

True demonstration of Emotional Healing can happen only with a deep understanding of the concept of Grace. Several of us link Grace only with spirituality and faith and divine things. But practicing Grace is essential in today’s world, and it is possible for mere human beings. Only Grace can heal the world of the deep wounds that it is suffering from.

So what does Grace mean in our day-to-day lives?

Let us begin by looking at Justice. All of us understand Justice well. We build human society on the concept of Justice. Justice, simply put, is “When You Get What You Deserve”. You do something good, you get a proportionate reward, you do something bad, you get a proportionate punishment. All of us crave for justice. All of us raise our voices when injustice is done. This is an easily understood concept.

Higher than the concept of Justice is the concept and practice of Mercy. When someone who deserved a punishment is sentenced to get that punishment, all that he/she can do is to plead for Mercy. All judicial systems make allowance for mercy pleas, executive heads can grant that. Mercy, in other words, is “When You are Spared of a Punishment that You Deserve”.

So is there something higher than the concept of Mercy? This is where Grace comes in. Grace goes way above and beyond Justice and Mercy. Grace happens when we are not only spared of the punishment that we deserved , but we get a reward that we did not deserve. Grace is “Unmerited Benefit”. Sounds illogical? I agree, Grace is beyond logic. That is why we call it divine. Grace could even be termed as unfair. Yes, at first glance it might appear illogical and unfair. In an emotionally charged world, logic alone is not enough to heal the wounds that are inflicted upon us every day. We need Grace. Justice is required, and is not enough to heal the hurt that is caused due to incidents like George Floyd or Nirbhaya or a Pehlu Khan . We need Grace. Only Grace can heal the deep wounds caused by society’s ills.

So is there a role for Grace in Business Leadership? Yes, next time when you are tempted to ask, “Does he/she really deserves that”, think about an alternative. Even if that employee does not deserve my time, I will make time for him/her. Even when a team member did not “earn” the right to be developed, I will invest in the development of the team member. Even if the employee has failed in the past, I will give him/her a second chance and entrust a recent project to him/her. Try it out. It will do a world of difference to your organisation’s culture.

You may have one question though. Will people not misuse the concept of Grace? The answer is yes, there is a risk that someone might. History shows that every good deed of humanity has been misused by a small percentage of people. The question we need to ask is, should we hold back because a few people might misuse it (the command-and-control leadership), or should we dispense it because several will enjoy it (Servant Leadership)?

So don’t let Social Distancing stop you from Emotionally Healing yourselves and your relationship with others, be it at home, in your neighbourhood or at work. Come practice the behaviour of Emotional Healing and join the Servant Leadership Movement.

__________________________________________________

Dr. Madana Kumar is your Servant Leadership Evangelist. You can contact him here.

Categories
Uncategorized

Four Reasons Why Servant Leadership is the Answer

Four Reasons Why Servant Leadership is the most suited leadership philosophy for the Post-COVID19 New Normal

We hear about “New Normal” a lot these days. COVID 19 has disrupted our lives and this has spawned a whole new set of studies and theories about what the future could hold for our lives. We cannot escape this even if we want to. As a student of Leadership, my question always is “How does Leadership matter” in this scenario? How does Leadership matter in the New Normal?  John Maxwell gives a crisp but definitive answer to that question. “Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership,” he says, and I agree.

So what type of leadership will the New Normal require? I am amazed by the response I get when I ask participants in the workshops to put down the first images that come to their minds when they hear the word Leadership. The responses show an innate deep desire in all human beings to see leadership as something good, leaders as people who do glorious things for their followers. This desire has only got stressed by the COVID19 Pandemic that we are going through. My studies show that there are four specific qualities that people will look for in Leadership in the New Normal.

  1. The New Normal will transform the way Leadership uses “Power”: We cannot separate Leadership from Power. It is not, and it never was, the absence of power that distinguished admired leaders from poor leaders. It is how the leaders used the powers they had.  The old normal of Power Elite, where power was concentrated on a few selected people like Capitalists, or Politicians or Military Leaders will not exist anymore in the New normal. The New Normal will shun the “Power over” syndrome to adapt to the “Power with” syndrome. The new Normal will promote Socialised Power as against Individualized power. Corporate honchos who use power only for profits cannot get many followers in the New Normal. Goodness will prevail over greed.
  2. The New Normal will demand excellence in Leadership beyond the achievement of objectives: COVID has made several people realise that there is a higher purpose to life and work. Hence the Old normal of a Leader seen as someone driving the team towards a common aim will not suffice anymore.  Followers will start looking for higher purposes in leadership. This will require inculcating several aspects of Spirituality into Leadership. They will demand altruism of leaders. It is not just about what goals we achieved; it is about how much help we provided to the needy, will become a key metric of leadership. Ethics will find its place at the heart of leadership in the New Normal. People will start looking for leaders with top levels of integrity.
  3. The New Normal will enforce Values-Based Leadership: COVID has shown us the impact of our actions on others. We have seen several people suffering because of actions (or inactions) by one individual or a group of individuals. Hence people will look for significantly high value-systems in their leaders. It is not enough to be Charismatic or have magnificent vision. What values the leader holds and lives by will become very important. 
  4. The New Normal will disrupt the chasing of Success and replace it with pursuit of Significance: Successful people were adored and held in high esteem in the old normal. However, the New Normal is revealing the fact that “success” does not always include others. Successful people do not necessarily add value to So the new question that is being asked is not how much value you added to oneself, but how you have used those to add value to others. I have said this before in my earlier blog (Four Personal Habits for laying the foundations of Significant Living in a Post COVID world), Success brings in happiness, which is temporary, which is fleeting. Significance brings in Fulfilment which is lasting, even for a lifetime.

So, the world is looking for a new Leadership Paradigm for the New Normal. Is there is Leadership Philosophy that meets all these four criteria? Fortunately for us, the answer is an affirmative “Yes”. Servant Leadership is the answer.

Only Servant Leadership can satisfy the innate desire of every human being that Leadership must be for the good of others.

Come Embrace this Leadership Philosophy. Come Join the Servant Leadership Movement.

______________________________________________________

Dr. Madana Kumar is the

Dr. Madana Kumar is the Servant Leadership Evangelist at UST. Contact him here

Categories
Uncategorized

VALUE: The Five Strong Pillars of Employee Engagement

COVID has changed the basic premises of Employee Engagement. I consider the term Human Resources as a misnomer. There!! I have said it and have created angst among many of my esteemed colleagues in the HR fraternity.  Let us face it. What does the term “resource” remind us about? Raw materials used in production? Money used in procuring assets? Machines that convert raw materials into finished product? Do we want to be counted similar to those “resources”? Would you be happy if your organisation treated you as one of the “means” to get the results?  You get the drift. That is probably why many people are switching to the term Human Capital Management.

Considering employees as “resources” is not more an option in the post COVID world. I am not getting pedantic about the terminology. The fact is that the pandemic has taught employees to value themselves. The pandemic has taught employers to value their employees more.

But what does valuing an employee really mean? Let me explain this using VALUE as an acronym.

V is for Vision. Employers need to give the employees a string vision , a vision that is not limited by the day-to-day realities of this pandemic stricken world. Servant Leaders create and communicate a strong Vision for the employees. Servant Leaders also persuade followers to buy into the vision and make it their own.  Vision that a Servant Leader creates and communicates is one that I would like to call as Higher Purpose Vision. This gives the employees a greater purpose in life than mere profit. It gives them a cause. This connects them with the organisation in a much stronger way, than when they are a “resource”.

A is for Appreciation. Servant Leaders appreciate the value that each team member brings to the table, irrespective of their position or title or level in the organisation. As Ken Blanchard puts it, they “catch people doing the right things”. They recognize and reward people for their achievements. Even when there are failures, they are able to deal with it without devaluing the individual, appreciating their strengths rather than focusing on their limitations. Servant Leaders believe in the saying “It is not what you don’t have that matters most. What you do with what you have that matters most.”

L is for Love. Don’t beat me up on this. This is not mushy soft stuff. And yes, it is a verb. What has leadership got to do with Love; you ask? “Everything” is the answer of a Servant Leader. Servant Leaders love their people. And in a selfless way. It is not about what they can (or have) done for you, but is about what you can do for them.

U is for Uplifting. Servant Leaders truly lift their people up. This is how I define a Servant Leader, “He/she is someone who invests in another person to the extent that the other person becomes better, wiser, richer, healthier, wealthier, more famous that yourselves”. I am reminded of an analogy that a friend of mine narrates to illustrate this. Imagine you have taken your child to a fair/fete. The place is crowded and you are enjoying the sights, there are lights everywhere, there are fireworks going off, people are cheering and smiling. You are enjoying the scene and hope that your child is having a great time. But then you realise that your child is not happy, she is constantly tugging at your hands, your trousers, and trying to get your attention. Finally when you feel pestered enough, you reluctantly lift the child up and put her on your shoulders. Suddenly the child’s face lights up. She starts enjoying the fete/fair as much as you do. Then you realise that when the child was down there, from her point of view,  all that she was able to see was a crowd of feet, dirty shoes, jeans, trousers, skirts, whatever came at her eye level. When you lift her up, you enable her to see the world from your point of view.  Servant Leaders lift other people up so that they can be better.

E is for Emotional Connect with people. Servant Leaders connect with people not just at a transactional level. They connect at an emotional level. They are empathetic. They can sense the feelings behind actions and words. They listen to the people for what is being said and what is not being said too. They can heal relationships by forgiving themselves as well as others for mistakes (intentional or otherwise). They have the courage to apologise for wrongs that they have committed.

So there you have it.  VALUE are the five string pillars of Employee Engagement in the New Normal. Several organisations spent enormous efforts to measure and improve Employee Engagement. I offer Servant Leadership as the sure shot solution for this problem. My own research that I did for my Doctoral thesis establishes a very strong and significant positive correlation on the Organisational Commitment of employees when Leaders demonstrate Servant Leadership behaviour.

So , do join the Servant Leadership movement and enhance the Employee Engagement in your teams.

Categories
Uncategorized

Four Personal Habits for laying the foundations of Significant Living in a Post COVID world

As we prepare to return to the “New Normal” after the COVID 19 pandemic and the associated lockdown side-effects, one question that is being asked by everyone is  “How it is going impact our social life?”. After all, social distancing was the mantra during the COVID lockdown, right? Will the society become more individualistic? Will we be more inclined to “look  after our own safety”? To me, a larger question that we need to address is, what has COVID 19 taught us about the purpose of our lives? Has it helped us to discover our “Why” as Simon Sinek would ask? Has it helped us to realise that there are always choices, lockdown or not? Choices for us to seek Success or to seek Significance?

Several experts will agree that pursuit of Success brings Happiness, but pursuit of Significance brings Fulfilment, and it is a no-brainer as to which is better. Happiness is fleeting, it is temporary, it will fade away soon. Fulfilment on the other hand, is lasting (sometime for a life time). One of the lessons I would request all us to consider when we reach the “New Normal” is to ditch the temptation to chase success and to pursue significance. This is an essential trait for Servant Leaders.

But pursuing Significance is not easy. It takes effort. It has to be  developed like a Habit, consciously first and then it will come to us in an unconscious manner. That is why we recommend four personal Habits for Servant Leaders. Let us take a look at the four personal Habits, that will help us to lead a Significant Life. These four are by no means exhaustive. To be significant you have to go further than this, but this will lay a great foundation.   

Habit 1: Take a Pause and Recharge Yourselves. As all of us are aware, our gadgets require recharging very often. However when it comes to ourselves, we ignore that need. Our task oriented life makes us so busy that we keep jumping from one task to another. That  is why we recommend a 15 to 45 minutes of Pause and Recharge time every day for Servant Leaders. Take a break from your tasks and find that 15 to 45 minutes of time to reconnect with yourselves (or a higher power if you are spiritual). It will change the way you see the world, and deal with what the world throws at you.

Habit 2: Apologise: Noe of us are perfect and we will mess up things. When we make mistakes (and most of the times it impacts someone else), let us pick up the courage to go and apologise for what we have done. But remember a good apology starts with honesty , and ends with integrity. Because if an apology is not honest or we lack integrity while apologizing, we are likely to make this into a “bad habit”.

Habit 3: Forgive: Who among us hasn’t been let down or hurt by someone else? Those who are able to get over it and get going are those who have mastered the power of forgiveness. There are always a thousand reasons for us “not to forgive”. But there is one reason why we should. “Not forgiving someone is like drinking poison yourselves and hoping that the other person will die”. So do it for yourselves, so that you are rid of the bitterness and anger related with the person and/or incident.

Habit 4: Self-Healing: Let me repeat again, none of us are perfect and we will mess up. Self-healing is the ability to forgive ourselves and bounce back from our failures. Inability to self-heal will only make us live in guilt for a longer time than required. Let the baggage go, and move on.

So those are the four habits that can help us lead Significant Lives. Start practicing them now, so that when we start the “new normal” we are well on our way to becoming Servant Leaders and Significant Leaders. Note that two of the Habits are purely for self, and the other two involve others. That is the beauty of Significance.  Significance in a practical sense is when we add value to ourselves , with the intention of adding value to others.

Let us get started. Come Join the Servant Leadership Movement

Categories
Uncategorized

A SERVANT-LEADER’S APPROACH TO HOMELESSNESS

The story lines are unavoidable.  Communities facing housing shortages, increasing rents and lack of affordable housing report the growing presence of people experiencing homelessness.  It is no longer necessary to go into the deep recesses of the night, in the wrong neighborhood or under the freeway bridge to find unhoused people.  People who are unhoused walk among the greater community, carts in tow, and remind us by their presence alone that they exist.  The homelessness issue presents servant leaders with a unique opportunity to respond.

Servant leaders address the institutional concern.

“If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”  Non-profit, faith based, and government organizations have, as part of their mission, support and aid to those experiencing homelessness.Servant leaders address the need for institutional change in these institutions.  While homelessness is arguably a result of a lack of affordable housing, at its core, the solution is a matter of the heart.  The institutions and programs available to rid this societal shortcoming must be motivated to garner the resources to solve the issue.  The servant leader finds ways to be flexible around matters of geography and jurisdiction.  He focusses on collaboration to address the impact of homelessness on people.  Fundamentally, the servant leader cares about the needs of others above his own needs and seeks to provide betterment of the individual, and not deprive the most vulnerable and least privileged in society.

Servant leaders prioritize people.  

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.”  Certainly, those who care about people can coexist with those who care about solving the institutional and systemic “problem” of homelessness.  The solution to homelessness has a very different feel when the focus is on the “issue” of homelessness versus the person experiencing homelessness.  For the servant leader, the individual is not lost in the effort.  To the servant leader, the person experiencing homelessness is the person being served, the customer who expects service.   The person who seeks to resolve homelessness with the person in mind, will be careful to value the individual in their approach.  They will include those experiencing homelessness in discussions and strategies for bettering homeless services.  People who value resolving the “issue” of homelessness apart from the person may support objectives to remove the visibility of homelessness without regard for the person removed.   The servant leader is always on the side of valuing the individual especially the least privileged in society.

Servant leaders practice patience and empathy.

“The servant always accepts and empathizes, never rejects.  The servant as leader always empathizes, always accepts the person but sometimes refuses to accept some of the person’s effort or performance as good enough.”  Servant leaders will undoubtedly face those who blame the person experiencing homelessness for their current circumstance.   “Why won’t the person work?”  People experiencing homelessness are associated with some of the most negative stigmas; lazy, drunkard, drug addict, scam artist, irreparable, etc.  The servant leader understands that the time taken to enter homelessness is not quickly reversed.  With care, the servant leader reassures those experiencing homelessness while patiently encouraging a change of heart for those offended by the presence of homelessness.  They carefully reframe the narrative and correct misperceptions, maintaining the focus on the humanity of those experiencing homelessness.  They clarify that homelessness is most often associated with underlying childhood trauma and remind others that homelessness, the need to survive on the street under a dynamically different set of social norms, is by itself traumatic.

Finally- servant leaders seek heart change.  

There are few needs more foundational to the human existence than housing.  Yet, gaps remain in formulating systems to remove barriers to existing homelessness programs.  There is not enough involvement by those affected in finding a solution and few proven solutions.  Servant leaders are uniquely positioned to usher in change, given their heart and desire to care for the essential needs of others.  Servant leaders seek not only to end homelessness as a societal ill but also desire to inspire the heart change in others that will ultimately ensure the most vulnerable in our community are not further deprived.

Written by, Malcolm A. Hankins